


Wake

by itsjimfromit



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Nightmares, Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-17
Updated: 2012-11-17
Packaged: 2017-11-18 21:05:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/565294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsjimfromit/pseuds/itsjimfromit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When it comes, Q never quite knows what to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wake

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first 00Q fic, and I apologize in advance for the shortness and any botching I might do.

It doesn’t happen every night. This is mostly because they cannot be together every night. Instead, more often than not, Q lies awake, reaching for James in his sleep, coming up empty again and again while James is in some far away place, always in danger, always a fraction of a step away from death.

  
But when it does happen, they are together. It comes sometime after the sex and the cuddling and the whispers; sometime after James pretends to fall asleep so that Q can really, truly relax. Q is always awake when it comes.

  
It’s the only time the quartermaster has ever seen a 00 with his guard completely down. Even when he’s with James, there’s always some part of him that he holds back, something that he musn’t dare lose control over. No matter how hard he tries, James will always be a spy first and a lover second. There is no way around this.

  
It comes with something like sigh. Then James’s breath catches, and Q lies awake beside him, hand hovering over his head, anxiously awaiting his next breath. When it comes, it doesn’t come easily. James knots the bedsheets in a fist so tight that Q cannot relax his fingers. Then his legs kick, and he sighs again, though it’s more of a tortured moan.

  
When it comes, Q feels absolutely useless. He wants very much to wake James, to hold him and to stroke his hair and to tell him that he’s going to be fine, but he knows that isn’t his place. James wants to protect him; James wants to be needed, and Q wants to need him. So he does nothing but stroke James’s hair and rattle off scientific nonesense and pretend to be asleep when it ends. Q never talks about it when they wake, but it hurts him to see James in the throes of a nightmare. Try as he might, Q knows he’ll never be able to fathom the horrors that plague James at night.

  
When it ends, it becomes Q’s turn to feign sleep. He knows that James can tell he’s faking, but he does it for his sake.


End file.
